TELE-SAAR Europe's First Commercial TV Station As Transnational
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«Comunicazioni sociali», 2013, n. 1, 6-19 © 2013 Vita e Pensiero / Pubblicazioni dell’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore ANDREAS FICKERS TELE-SAAR Europe’s first commercialTV station as transnational experiment* 1. INTRODUCTION The story of Tele-Saar, the commercial TV station providing both German and French- speaking audiences in the Saarland with programmes funded by advertising in the mid-1950’s, constitutes a most interesting episode of European broadcasting history – whether from a technical, an economic, a cultural or a political history perspective. The establishment of the ‘‘Saarländische Fernseh AG’’ on 17 May 1952 marked not just the beginning of private commercial broadcasting in the Saarland, at that time under French economic administration, but also a special chapter of post-war French and German broadcasting history – at a time when commercial radio and television were forbidden both in France’s Fourth Republic and in West Germany. In both countries, the concept of public broadcasting had prevailed in the aftermath of the Second World War, with its monopolistic dominance defended by politicians through to the 1980’s. In the whole of Germany and France? As in the comic world of Goscinny and Uderzo1, the Saarland can be seen as that strip of the Franco-German border region where everything was a bit different. The aim of this contribution is to look at why this was the case, studying the background of this private-sector initiative and its long-term consequences. Though the focus is on the 1950’s, to really do justice to its exceptional status and media his- tory importance, the story of the Saarländische Fernseh AG needs to be seen within the extended context of Franco-German and European broadcasting history. After giving a brief historical introduction into the structure of German and French broadcasting at that time and the Franco-German skirmishes during the ups and downs of the broadcasting history of the two countries, I will be looking at the run-up to the creation of the Saarländische Fernseh AG and its actual establishment. In doing so, I will be presenting the key players, i.e. the ones who sat at the negotiating * This article offers a drastically shortened English version of a book chapter originally published in a three volume series on the history of media in the Saarland in 2010. While this article concentrates on the emer- gence and short life of the private television station Tele-Saar, the original version mainly focused on the history of the commercial radio station Europe n. 1. See Fickers A., “Die Anfänge des kommerziellen Rundfunks im Saarland. Die Geschichte der Saarländischen Fernseh AG (Tele-Saar und Europe No. 1)’’, in Zimmermann C., Hudemann R., Kuderna M., eds., Medienlandschaft Saar von 1945 bis in die Gegenwart. Band 1: Medien zwis- chen Demokratisierung und Kontrolle (1945-1955), München: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2009, 241-310. 1 The two French comic-strip artists and graphic novelists René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo created in 1959 the comic figure “Asterix” which gave born to a series of comic books which exploited the story of a village of indomitable Gauls resisting the Roman occupation of their territory. Every album of the series starts with the legendary prologue: “The year is 50 B.C. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not en- tirely... One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invadors. And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium...”. Libro_Com. soc..indb 6 23/04/2013 9.54.26 TELE-SAAR 7 table and were to play a dominant role in the subsequent development of the Franco- German/Saarland broadcasting scene. Having thus set the stage, I will then take a look at the technical side, looking at the company’s broadcasting facilities and the accom- panying financial and structural aspects. The focus here is on the locational debate and the relationship between the Fernseh AG and the Saarländischer Rundfunk. Alongside the international perspective, a further perspective looks at programme development. The Saarland plebiscite of 1955 and the subsequent integration of the Saarland into the Federal Republic of Germany brought with them major changes in the broadcast- ing landscape, ultimately tolling the death knell of the private TV station, Tele-Saar, in 1958. Against this backdrop, the intensive Franco-German efforts to reach an ami- cable solution to the Fernseh AG problem are reconstructed in detail. 2. THE SAARLAND IN THE CONTEXT OF FRANCO-GERMAN BROADCASTING HISTORY As shown by Michael Rother, the end of the Second World War was by no means a blank page for Franco-German relations in the field of broadcasting technology2. Whereas televi- sion only really got going again in occupied Germany in the 1950’s, France had a headstart over other West European countries directly after the end of the war thanks to its fruitful collaboration with the German occupation authorities during the war and was able to start regular television broadcasting for 12 hours a week in October 1947 already. Together with England, France spearheaded the development of a European television infrastructure in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, despite the heated technical, political and industrial dis- cussions over a European standard for black and white television3. Although the spread of television as a mass medium took place at a much slower pace in France than for instance in Great Britain or even West Germany, French television technology – for example the 819-line system – topped the agenda of national technology policy, becoming the sym- bolic figurehead of France’s newly restored ‘‘grandeur’’4. In the middle of this phase of instrumentalising television standards and technology, characterised by the ambivalence of industrial protectionism in the field of television technology on the one hand and inter- national symbolic politics on the other, work started on setting up a commercial TV station in the Saarland, with the private-sector stakeholders in France harbouring the hope that the new station would become a strategic outpost of French television technology. 3. THE BIRTH OF THE SAARLÄNDISCHE FERNSEH AG 1. The restructuring of broadcasting in the Saarland Even though in the late 1940’s there was still a long way to go before television broad- casting in the Saarland actually got started, the topic topped the agenda in the consulta- 2 Rother M., Kooperation - Kollaboration - Konkurrenz. Deutsches und französisches Fernsehen bis 1963 (Cooperation - collaboration - competition. German and French television up to 1963), Berlin: Deutsch- es Rundfunkarchiv, 2008. 3 Fickers A., O’Dwyer A., ‘‘Reading between the lines: a transnational history of the Franco-British ‘entente cordiale’ in post-war television’’, VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture, 1, 2 (2012). Online: http://viewjournal.eu. 4 For a detailed analysis of the technopolitics of postwar television in Europe see Fickers A., “Politique de la grandeur” versus “Made in Germany”. Politische Kulturgeschichte der Technik am Beispiel der PAL- SECAM-Kontroverse, Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2007. Libro_Com. soc..indb 7 23/04/2013 9.54.26 8 ANDREAS FICKERS tions between France and the Saarland on restructuring broadcasting in the Saarland. Although ‘‘Radio Saarbrücken’’ had started broadcasting radio programmes in German on 17 March 1946, France continued to control broadcasting in the Saarland until the Saarland government’s adoption of the Broadcasting Act on 28 June 19525. In addition to its statutory authority over broadcasting, France also had great influence over the pro- grammes broadcast in the Saarland, not least in the person of Radio Saarbrücken’s man- aging director Frédéric Billmann. Born in Alsace, Billmann, an experienced journalist, broadcaster and originally an economist, was responsible for ensuring that the station’s broadcasting policy was in line with French interests. At least until the transformation of Radio Saarbrücken into the Saarländische Rundfunk GmbH in 1952, this was reflected in the pro-French and anti-German stance taken by the station, strategically propagated as the station’s ‘‘European mission’’6 . From 1950 onwards, more and more people started calling for the station to assume a more pro-Saarland profile, reflecting the Saarland’s increased political autonomy. In a letter of the Saarland department of the French Foreign Office dated 7 June 1950, the writer, E. Burin des Roziers, left no doubt that a revision of the current regulations governing broadcasting in the Saarland was unavoidable7. In the words of Burin des Roziers, these no longer reflected the political circumstances existing in the Saarland. A solution respecting the legitimate ambitions of the Saarland government on the one hand and French interests on the other needed to be sought. He had therefore instructed the High Commissioner to initiate discussions on restructuring broadcasting in the Saar- land. As decided at a preliminary meeting on the subject held in the French Foreign Of- fice (in the department responsible for the Saarland) on 9 May 1950, these discussions needed to focus on finding a formula. At the same time, the Saarland government was discussing proposals for a new Broadcasting Act. This however was much more focused on public broadcasting. Following Grandval’s intervention, a Franco-German commis- sion was set up on 28 June 1950 with the task of coming up with a new statutory basis for broadcasting8. In the discussions the most important issue turned out to be whether – as desired by the Saarland government – the right to set up and operate a broadcasting station should be within the sole responsibility of the Saarland government, or whether – as demanded by the French (i.e. Billmann) this right should also be accorded to the not yet founded ‘‘Saarländische Rundfunk GmbH’’. The long discussions ended with the French proposal being accepted.